creating your own major

<p>question: what are some colleges that let you create your own major?</p>

<p>Boston University has the University Professor's Program (UNI) which allows you to do that; however, it's very competitive and hard to get into. I think there's only about 30 people in the program at a time (so I'm guessing they admit about 7 a year).</p>

<p>(bump)
thanks... any more? come on, I know they're out there! <em>feels overshadowed by the many many SAT topics active right now</em></p>

<p>In Washington state, Evergreen.</p>

<p>Just to explain why you may not get a lot of answers:</p>

<p>There are something like 4000 colleges and universities in the United States. So to ask an open-ended question with no information as to your preferences regarding size, location, admissions difficulty means that all anyone can do is just throw random names out there. What is the point of that?</p>

<p>Every college I know allows students to design a special major, but to just start naming them would be silly.</p>

<p>Not directed at you CrashBlair, but if people are really looking for advice, help us out and give us a little bit to go on.</p>

<p>The University of Redlands Johnston Center is a unique "college within a college" where you not only create your own interdisciplinary major (called an emphasis), you contract with teachers to tailor class assignments and research to meet your individual interests. There are no grades, you get detailed written evaluations. </p>

<p>It's really a neat program. Some past Johnston Center emphases: Culture, Religion and Women; identity through Literature and Creative Writing; Music and psychosocial development; Literature and the history of Ideas; Philosophy and Law; Biopsychology; Human Ecology: evnironmental studies/humanities; Forensic psychology; the Art of Conservation; Molecular genetics; Herpetology.</p>

<p>I didn't know there were so many....</p>

<p>Alright then, non-LACs in the Northeast.</p>

<p>As interesteddad notes, you can create your own major at almost any college. So, you might just want to consider other criteria, find schools that match you, and go from there. </p>

<p>One possibility that might interest you is the U of Rochester's Take-Five Scholars program.</p>

<p>Now, you've narrowed the field. For the most part, the schools that will individually tailor a major tend to be smaller student-oriented undergrad colleges. Because they are dealing with much larger numbers, universities will be less likely to custom-tailor a program for an individual student, just like you would be less likely to expect a huge restaurant to prepare a special-request dish than a small chef-owned restaurant.</p>

<p>Special majors are very labor intensive for the school, usually requiring a faculty member to work closely with the student in putting together the curriculum and tracking the progress.</p>

<p>Duke does: <a href="http://www.aas.duke.edu/trinity/program2/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.aas.duke.edu/trinity/program2/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Another drawback to universities: they tend to be divided into specialized schools or divisions (i.e., school of business, school of communications, etc.) which makes putting together your own major across different divisions difficult. I think ID is on the money: your best bet for self-directed majors are smaller student oriented undergrad colleges. One to look into: Hampshire.</p>

<p>nyu- gallatin</p>

<p>Generally, the most flexible are the New England LACs, Amherst College is a good example. I wouldn't go larger than Tufts for creating your own major.</p>